A river ripper's trip around the world.

Kanaha ’til sunset

Sailing has been very good this week, with many light wind wave-sailing sessions at both Ho’okipa and Lanes, one powered-up big wave session at the first and one excellent wave-riding session at Lower Kanaha today. Lets go in chronological order. First up, Ho’okipa in light winds. It’s definitely not easy, as Ho’okipa is a tricky spot to sail at, with weird tides and wind patterns, so in light winds it’s even trickier because you have way less power to move around with on the water. Also, because the waves have been pretty small this week (nothing bigger than shoulder-high), it’s been pretty hard catch them, i.e. synchronize with the sets of waves coming in, so be at the breaking point (where you ride the waves) at the right time (not between the sets when it’s flat). The other issue is the cohabitation in light winds of both surfers and windsurfers. On a wave, surfers have absolute priority. Normally, when it’s windy, they just don’t go out, but it’s light wind, they’ll be out there, and they can be quite territorial. Bottom line, it’s been some excellent training to get ready for when the spot actually does turn on.

Next up, Lanes in light winds. Lanes is just the break downwind of Ho’okipa, so it’s bit of a messier wave, not quite as long, but it doesn’t break on those gnarly rocks and it’s never crowded. On the other hand, it’s probably the worse launch I’ve ever seen. You basically walk on a reef for 10-20m and then you go in about one foot of water, still walking on that sharp reef, but now not seeing where you step, for another 20m or so. Basically, there’s no way to get through it without cutting yourself, booties or no booties. And coming in might be even worse. Anyways, the wave there is really nice, and almost always deserted. So two days ago, I caught a few by myself in super light winds.

Yesterday, the trade winds came back to Ho’okipa, with some pretty big sets (some waves mast-size + for sure). My session was amazing, I felt very confident heading out, now that I know the spot a little bit, and I know how to get over that massive whitewater, and even though I’m still playing it safe on the wave-face, missing out on a turn or two to make sure I get off the wave before the rock, I enjoyed some of the best wave rides since I got here. That session ended on a bit of a bittersweet note though, as the wind totally dropped in just a few minutes, at the same time as the waves got about twice as big, leaving to go back in without enough power in my sail to do anything. Basically, a mast-size wave monster swallowed me up and spit me gear out about 30 m in front of me. If it wasn’t for a very nice surfer who held my gear while I got there, I would’ve swam for quite some time (probably all the way back to shore).

Finally, today was the return to Kanaha, with an amazing wave-riding session at Lowers. The waves were about head-high, very long and not very powerful. The only complaint I could’ve had is that the wind was a tiny bit side-on, making the bottom turns a little tricky, and inconsistent, making jumping a bit hard as well. Nonetheless, I got plenty of great waves and I’m feeling more and more confident, working my way, slowly but surely, towards my own surfing style.

Tomorrow, it’ll be back to Ho’okipa before the wind switches to Kona…but that will be a story for next post.